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So…McNulty

We’ve been discussing the fate of McNulty. From the path the show is taking, and from the looks of the previews, McNulty hasn’t got much of a future. He’s permanently fucked things up with Rhonda, Beadie, his ex, and his kids. His secret is out within the department and looks like it gets out into City Hall next week too. There are more homeless bodies turning up, meaning maybe, what, a copy-cat killer who got his ideas reading about McNulty’s fiction in the papers?
When all is said and done, he’s got nobody on his side, except maybe Freamon. Everybody hates him. I can’t possibly see him staying on as a cop. It’s unfathomable that he could keep his job after this, and in the real world, there might even be federal charges in line.

As other NuPaccers have noticed, his drinking hasn’t been really notable the last two weeks,
but he’s been wearing his crushing despair on his sleeve. And this is a common pattern with alcoholics. When you start to sober up and see the mess you’ve made of your life and the lives of those around you, that’s the time that you are at your lowest. That’s often the time that you choose life or death, like Bubbles trying to hang himself over Sherrod right before his bottom in rehab.

My fellow recovering dope fiend Hiromi and I are thinking a McNulty suicide watch is in order. Not sure it would work from a dramatic standpoint with only one episode left to go, but if I was McNulty’s real life friend, I’d be worried.

Predictions for the fate of the loveably arrogant gaping asshole who started this whole beautiful mess five years ago?

I think the irony is that McNulty himself probably hasn’t thought about it much. Not that any of us know our own future but some have goals and overarching concerns that point them in a direction. As you point out, McNulty’s actions have most likely severed his connections to the people closest to him, his reality. And it seems like he was never really that concerned with those connections to begin with, so I don’t sense he feels a great anguish at losing them. He seems more bewildered to find himself staring at a big closed door. He obviously gets that this is a massive fuck up but he seems unable to grasp it emotionally. Which, to me, feels very realistic. Like how real-life narcissistic addict personalities operate.

I think the writers and the actor have done a great job of not going for the usual dramatics here.

Damn. THE final episode and I am up to my neck in crap to do at work tonight… no getting out of it. [heavy sigh]

I will be hitting OnDemand at 0730 or as close to it as I can. I don’t expect Jimmy is suicidal, but he could be up to getting really, really hammered and with that there is always the risk of something bad happening – couple that with the enormity of his screwups and the despair he must be feeling, Jimmy is practically demanding some sort of “brush with fate.” But, drunks usually manage to not kill themselves, so I expect a more institutionally appropriate fate for Jimmy. Suspension, disgrace, loss of face are coming his way, dead or alive. But there are no saints in the BPD and many did benefit from Jimmy’s deception, so there will be sympathy for Jimmy and his actions. Hell, they are going to miss him like nobody’s business.

As to McNulty offing himself, I’m on the fence. He’s such a narcisst that that argues against it but he’s also self-loathing, which argues for it. I’m inclined to think he’ll muddle through or even wind up under the bridge.

So when Simon does his show in New Orleans, I want a scene where a bunch of people walk into this place. The camera zooms in on me, looking up at the sign, pans to the sign, pans back to me, and I say “Who the fuck was McNulty?”